A corpus of Irish English – Past, present, future

Abstract

To date, no corpus of Irish English exists. Most previous research has focused on the syntactic and phonological peculiarities of Irish English showing how it differs from standard British English, and in the same way, many studies show how certain patterns have parallel forms in the Irish language. The dearth of synchronic study of Irish English has been noted in the past. This paper will examine the pattern of research into the English language in Ireland and it will suggest that in order to develop adequate paradigms for description and research, corpus-based methods are essential. Corpus linguistics offers the study of Irish English the opportunity to become part of a global body of research and in so doing will enhance the description of the English language.